Among the Ash Heaps and Millionaires

     By now, it has been over 101 years since the Great Jay Gatsby was killed. Yes, he was killed after the moment when Daisy cried, "but I loved you too".

    Gatsby was a character who chased after the things he believed were most beautiful in the world - wealth, status, Daisy - yet like Nick says, Gatsby "shivered when he found what a grotesque thing a rose is". Gatsby's perspective he kept from when he was a naive teenager shaped what he valued and what he believed would bring him happiness, even though Daisy isn't happy at all. She cries all the time. She is even shown crying on the cover of the book, the green light which Gatsby sought for all his life being nothing better than a lone green tear.

    Tragically, Gatsby tries to hold onto the past, because he is a creation of the past. He never learned to change, or see how Daisy changed. Daisy was no longer the joyful idealized girl she was when she was younger. Her completed marriage life left her without any fun and made her realize how she is a shallow person. Gatsby's charade to pull Daisy back into the past ultimately fails as time follows its destined path forward.

    Perhaps, as Daisy says, Gatsby wants too much. Would the man be happier if he had gone on to live a simple live on the farm? Would he be able to enjoy the little moments and live life step-by-step? Perhaps so. Gatsby was created to represent the American Dream, but his entire existence was doomed because it was built on top of the hopes of naive, idealistic young men. When James Gatz dies, nobody comes to his funeral except Nick, his father, and a drunk who was living out of his library. Gatsby may have given hundreds of people the night of their lives, but he couldn't make a single one muster up the bother of feeling mournful for him. This is because as a single idea, Gatsby is widespread across America. The "self-made man" is just one of many, and easily replaceable. Another point is that Gatsby as a character was always stuck in the past. The people have long moved on from him. The most obvious take would be that nobody ever did care about Gatsby because he was never real, just a persona. That's what you get for working too hard, moron!